Wednesday, November 01, 2006

Growing up, I never was much of a comic person. But a few years ago, one of my now ex-girlfriends turned me onto a modern form of these illustrated stories in the form of internet comics (aka webcomics). The first one she got me into reading was one called Something Positive. I've been following it for about three years now and it's quite a bit older than that.

Since I started, I've gotten fuzzy on much of the background and what happened, when. However, recently, SP featured a strip that echoed very strongly with me. The story arc was entitled "Holy Ghost Stories" and the first strip of it can be found here.

If the comic itself doesn't get the point across to you, then read what Randy put in the newspost:

to my Christian readers: I am sorry. I am sorry many of you do get stereotyped or find yourself having to defend your faith against those who've been jaded by the batshit insane. More than a couple of you ... felt this storyline was portraying Christians as the likes of Phelps. This was not my intent. However, I have some awful news for you.

The problem of being lumped with them won't go away until you become more vocal.

People assume most Christians are heavy-handed, pushy, intolerant bigots bent of dominating any other culture or idea and supplanting it with their own whims because, for the most part, the ones who speak up the most ARE heavy-handed, pushy, intolerant bigots bent on dominating any other culture or idea and supplanting it with their own whims. It sucks. It's horrible. And it's the what everyone of any faith, political idea, or lifestyle has to deal with. People always focus on the loud minority who ruins everything. And like any other group, the only way you can combat this is making your views and, in this case, your kindness and actual testimony louder than the hateful prattle of those hurting your beliefs.

I find myself in full agreement with everything Randy says here. I make no secret about the fact that I'm an atheist and don't think highly of religion, but I'm not one to look down on anyone until they've earned it.

Religious zealots like Phelps, Brother Jed, Pat Robertson and the others definately fall into this category. And unfortunately, they're so vocal, that they drag everyone assosciated down with them. The trouble is that the supposed "silent majority" pretends this isn't a problem. I'm not sure why. Perhaps the moderate, intelligent, Christians out there are hoping that if they ignore the problem it will go away.

Perhaps it's time to take a lesson from us scientists. We've been finding out that hoping the crackpots will go away doesn't work. Next thing we know, they're trying to force their inane ideas into schools and the government. Many scientists are just now waking up to the problem we've let fester.